Last week we took a short trip to the UK with our partner WizzAir. We spent a weekend in London for London Fashion Week. It was a last minute thing, but since WizzAir have 3 flights a day to London, it was easy to make it all convenient for us and book the right flights.

We arrived at around 8:00 a.m. on Friday and checked in at our hotel DoubleTree by Hilton, which I would absolutely recommend for location! It’s in the City of London, and has lovely restaurants around Pret is very close for breakfast & coffee, Keepers Kitchen & Bar is fantastic for dinner & chill out, and  The Hung Drawn & Quartered Pub is close by typically English spot.) Plus, the hotel was is a minute away from the Tower Hill underground station. Transport in London is really good, but yet, having a nearby underground station is the best favor you could do yourself.

Anyway, after checking in we went for a walk to enjoy the buzz of the city. On the forefront of my to do list was to going to the London Fashion Week event hall. I had invites for a couple of shows, but I skipped them, and enjoy more time at the Designer Showrooms. Unfortunately, I had a few more sent out that I would have loved to attend, but since I messed up my delivery address, I couldn’t receive them on time.

This season London Fashion Week went under the slogan #PositiveFashion which in fact covered three different aspects of positivity. It encouraged sustainability in fashion, by featuring and pushing forward emerging designers that had sustainable produce. And also by turning LFW into digitally-friendly, switching to the use of electronic passes in order to reduce waste. Additionally, it encouraged diversity & equality by giving stage to various talents no matter their societal status. I was surprised to see so many Greek, Saudi Arabian and Korean designers. I never anticipated it as I thought it would be British designers mostly. And last but not least, it encouraged craftsmanship with a lot of handmade collections. And with an ethical attitude London Fashion Week also claimed no real fur was used in any of the shows this September.

Anyway, one thing I found out for myself now was that attending fashion shows isn’t that much of a big deal as I used to think since you really don’t get to communicate with anybody. You wait in a line for as long as you can stand, and then enjoy a 10-minute show. That’s all it is – most of cases. Don’t get me wrong! I still enjoy shows, but this time I got to see the difference, as I devoted my time to the Designer Showrooms at London Fashion Week, and it was amazing, because I met and spoke to a number of emerging designers. This was way more inspiring! You learn about the collections, the people and the ideas behind them, and it’s beyond interesting, because of that real and open interaction.

However, I was quite impressed with a few designers, which I feel have a great potential to make it in the industry. I loved BITE – a London-based brand with Scandinavian aesthetics which uses natural and organic materials with a proven record of social and environmental responsibility. IDEN was another lovely find with its sustainable denim collection. Or Mashu – modern vegan handbags made ethically and sustainably. Nita Suri was also one of my ultimate favorites and I can foresee the next it bag in its collection. As well as Marina Raphael which is just launching but has a bright future in my opinion.

After hours of meetings and talks, I entirely devoted myself to London and my family, because it was the three of us during the weekend. We enjoyed the city, and avoided the tourists spots as I am not really into them. I do not like London the way most people do. Attractions are too busy, not to mention I’ve already been to some of the major ones.

Instead of queuing the tourist lines, we took time in long walks as the weather was untypically brilliant. Some of our favorite areas in London are Notting Hill, Kensington & Mayfair, as well as where we stayed – City of London. Ron always loves that global feeling in the financial districts, so no need to explain why we booked a hotel there.

And if you really want to experience the city for yourself, try waking up really early, going out before anyone else have thrown themselves into that madness. We did that on Saturday at 8:00 a.m., and saw Oxford street & Bond street empty like never. And it’s a worthy feeling on a sunny morning when you can grab some coffee and enjoy your time.

Love,

Denina 

*Thank you WizzAir for making this trip possible.

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